Much of the combined knowledge base of the world has and continues to be recorded in written form (e.g., in books), so that others are able to more conveniently access and use such information. With the advent of computer technology, more and more information is now stored in an electronic form and accessed via a computer, rather than via the written page. Nonetheless, regardless of the media used to store information, the information has and continues to be regarded as being essentially one-dimensional--that is, a series of ideas strung together in a sequence of words or pages. Book pages and computer displays are each two-dimensional in nature, and may even provide two dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects. However, the basic structure of a collection of information presented in either case is still for the most part one-dimensional insofar as a person processes the information in a generally linear fashion.
Educational materials in particular tend to utilize a one-dimensional or linear progression to teach users about a particular subject. For example, an educational material may begin with a broad overview about a subject, and then progress sequentially through more detailed discussions of specific topics identified in the overview. Examples and/or problems may also be embedded sequentially within this progression so that, once a user receives detailed information about a particular topic, the user may be able to see an example, or may be required to work a problem, to reinforce the user's understanding of the topic. Many topics often tend to build on the information previously presented to a user in earlier topics so that a user can utilize the earlier information in contrasting and/or noting the similarities between the topics.
One drawback to conventional one-dimensional representations of information, however, is that a collection of information rarely if ever is related solely through a linear relationship. Rather, pieces of information about a given subject may often be linked together based upon a wide variety of contextual relationships, as well as from multiple sources.
For example, a collection of information may be associated with several levels of abstraction that stratify the collection into different categories and/or define predetermined relationships between information within the collection. A level of abstraction typically relates to a particular manner of looking at a given collection of information, also referred to as a body of knowledge. Among other criteria, different levels of abstraction may relate to different comprehension levels, e.g., a basic or summary level vs. an advanced level, or different points of view or ways of looking at or stratifying the information. A collection of information may also be associated within multiple concepts, with specific pieces of information relating to the same general concepts.
Unless a user has a complete understanding not only of the specific information in a body of knowledge, but also of the contextual relationships established within such information, the user likely will not have a full comprehension of the body of knowledge as a whole. On the other hand, given that a wide variety and volume of relationships may be established between information in a body of knowledge, there is a substantial risk that a presenting all of the potential relationships between information in a body of knowledge may actually impede user comprehension. Specifically, a large volume and/or a wide variety of relationships may be too overwhelming to digest absent some direction, e.g., from someone such as a teacher who is more knowledgeable about a particular body of knowledge. In short, a user may often have difficulty separating the relevant relationships in a body of knowledge from the irrelevant relationships.
As a result, a significant need exists, specifically in the area of presenting educational materials, for a manner of presenting not only the information in a body of knowledge, but also the contextual relationships established within the body of knowledge, with sufficient structure and control so that a user is better able to digest such information in a logical and coherent manner.